The 5 Elements of Yoga

Found in Ayurveda teachings, the universe is made up of five great elements. These include: earth, air, fire, water, and space. The 5 elements contribute their own qualities to our daily lives and are the foundation of connection to all things around us, including ourselves.

Our yoga practice leads with an intention. An intention to move deeper into our bodies, our breaths, our movements, our minds. To find joy in the experience of moving deeper into our inner selves and advocating for ourselves more thoughtfully. We combine these five elements to more intentionally create the experience we live.

Earth - Earth is about being centered and standing your ground. It is the expression of everything you do. Connecting this element to your yoga will boost support in your foundation (sitting bones, hands, feet). It focuses on maintaining awareness of how these positions and physical landmarks affect your experience in practice.

Air - Air involves lightness, movement, and expansion. The element of air gives you rhythm, grace, mobility, and an open mind. Infusing this element to yoga creates a focus on breathing. Breath control, or Pranayama, lets you open and touch your senses, leading a path of ideas, inspiration, and energy toward you.

Fire - Fire summons intensity and abundance along with discipline and inspiration. Lighting the fire element in your yoga practice will engage the bandhas with the core muscles and fire us up with a burning passion.

Water - Water represents fluidity, adaptability, and connection. It injects our practice with compassion and resilience that gives us fluid movement, steady joints, and an agile mind. Bringing water to your yoga invites softness to your sessions and transfers fluidity through your practice.

Space - Space holds everything up. It’s full of possibilities and potential. The space element in yoga consists of being present as well as bringing awareness to what you’re sticking with; whether that’s an emotion or thought or tension that you need to let go of.

We naturally gravitate toward one element more easily than to the rest. Which element do you connect with the most in your practice? Join me. Together, we will explore adding the elements to our practice, to bring balance and calm to our daily lives.

Chopping Wood + Carrying Water

I live by intentional breath, thought, and movement. I try. I teach it too. Yoga is intentional. Yoga is the practice of grounding in your presence, or more specifically the present moment you’re experiencing. Not receding from inevitable life discomforts, but nudging them enough to solve what they’re teaching, even if the appreciation doesn’t always come until much later. Thinking purposefully. Living intentionally. Standing strong in mountainous movements with confidence and grace. Yoga connects spirit to the individual and if practiced often enough, will radically uplift your well-being and improve your life. It teaches how to be a stronger, kinder, gentler human. Here, you are given space to learn to breathe, be present, and enjoy moving safely through an assortment of magical postures. When we relax into the good we’re capable of and breathe deeply through our moments of friction, we can do anything. Do More Good Yoga to breath, think, and experience your body more intentionally. Life isn’t all chopping wood and carrying water. Let’s gather and create a life worth living.